Then he relapsed into his meditations.

"How thick with life the air is.

I'm sure it's populated, if we only had eyes to see.

I feel it throbbing all round me--full of beings as much alive as I am, only invisible.

People used to see them once upon a time--why can't we now?
Naiads, and dryads, and fauns, and the great god Pan everywhere; oh, to think we may be actually surrounded by these wonders of beauty, and yet unable to talk to any of them! Nothing but wicked old women, and horrible young men in plaid knickerbockers and bowler hats, who worry one about odds and handicaps.